Will the N.C. Democratic Party see its shadow?
I cannot believe that it will take the state party until Feb. 2 to decide if the process by which attorney and former CMPD officer Nick Mackey was selected by the county party to fill Jim Pendergraph’s term followed party rules. That’s three more weeks of confusion and upheaval.
More importantly, the process has all the potential to devolve into a show trial — the outcome decided far in advance of whatever pomp and circumstance unfolds at the GovCenter that day. The fact is no matter what the panel decides, the decision will not be viewed as final by many.
We can see that from remarks attributed to Mecklenburg County Commissioner Valerie Woodard in an email account of the last Tuesday Morning Breakfast Forum meeting at the West Charlotte Rec center. The email relates that:
County Commissioner Valerie Woodard urged people to stay in touch with commissioners about the sheriff confirmation issue. “My whole issue with regard to this is the process. What I don’t want to happen in our community is that other folks other than our community end up making the decision as to who our leaders are…. A lot of you may have some concern with the person involved. But the person is not the priority here. It’s that process that is the priority. We may or many not like Nick Mackey. It doesn’t matter, because the people have spoken as to who they wanted to be their choice. And I don’t think we as commissioners are to tamper with that.”
It’s that process that is the priority.
Sure sounds like Valerie Woodward — and she is not alone — will not accept a Council of Review’s rejection of the local selection process. So what is the point of this exercise? We know it was supposed to give Parks Helms and Jennifer Roberts time and cover to reject Mackey.
Well, the time is long since past and the cover will manifestly provide no cover. This thing just keeps going from bad to worse. The people of Mecklenburg County — all of them — deserve much, much better.
